


10,000 Lightning Bugs

by Elsinore_and_Inverness



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Fluff, Music, silliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2019-01-01 03:18:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12147483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsinore_and_Inverness/pseuds/Elsinore_and_Inverness
Summary: The Doctor plays 'Fireflies' over and over again





	10,000 Lightning Bugs

'Doctor. That's the fifth time we've heard that song.' As much as she appreciated the Doctor's high spirits, the repetitiveness of his playlist was getting on her nerves. 

He executed something akin to a pirouette, almost falling over. 'Is it?' 

'You used to be able to dance.'

'That's not very nice.' But he grinned, still moving in a peculiar circular pattern across the floor. 

'Cause I get a thousand hugs, from ten thousand lightning bugs as they tried to teach me how to dance.'

'You're so weird.' Rose sat cross legged on the jump seat, watching her friend. The look he got in his eyes when he was excited about something was worth everything. It was a sparkle, a glimmer of something almost beyond comprehension. At the same time you could imagine the neurons firing behind the light in those eyes. 

'I'd like to make myself beliiiiieeve that planet Earth turns sloooowly.' 

'Does it?'

The Doctor stopped spinning, swaying slightly. 'Rotation period of 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.091 seconds. For a rocky planet its age it's still turning quite quickly. But-' A slow sad smile played on his lips, 'on Gallifrey a day was eighteen hours long. By your measurement, obviously. So for me-'

'Is that weird for you?'

'I live in a time machine.' The chorus of the song repeated again and the Doctor's charmingly untrained tenor joined in once again 'It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep, 'cause everything is never as it seeeeeems-'

'But you don't sleep, though.'

'I do. Two hours out of every eighteen if I can manage it. 

'That's-' Rose paused, calculating in her head, 'two and two-thirds hours out of every twenty-four.'

The Doctor shrugged. 'To ten million fireflies, I'm weird 'cause I hate goodbyes, got misty eyes as they said farewell...'

The Doctor sang more with emotion than strict adhesion to the principles of musicality. It was a pure, raw sound and Rose had to admit it more than made up for any repetitive issues in his choice of music.

The Doctor eventually came to the end of the song, 'Long vowels are difficult. I never know what my accent's doing.'

She looked at him thoughtfully, still thinking about what he had said about Gallifrey. 'Do you ever have nightmares?'

'That bad?'

'No. No, of course not. It was beautiful. You're-'  
The Doctor looked at the floor.

'I mean it.'

'Do you have nightmares, Rose Tyler?'

'I used to.'

The Doctor reached over to the CD player perched between levers on the TARDIS console to restart the song again.


End file.
